The Lost Books of The Odyssey

Parts of The Odyssey are retold and repurposed, twisted to shed new lights. Threads of the myth are Trojan-Horsed right up the main streets of other, unrelated threads. This type of insular, reflective storytelling is usually not my thing (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/454.Travels_in_the_Scriptorium) but The Odyssey itself is totally, subtextually present in our present, already resonating. This isn't something from Mason's mind only, or Homer's. The Odyssey is THE archetype, THE hero myth. Its threads are still unraveling, framing our own ideas and attempts of, or to, heroism. This is a very lovely book.

Some of them are only a page or two long. Some go on a bit longer. Some tell a straight-forward, if new, story, and others only make sense when you get to the end. Zachary Mason's brilliant debut, The Lost Books of the Odyssey, present 44 alternate versions, 44 additional stories, 44 fictions or 44 truths, depending on how you look at it.

Mason wraps this collection up in a story that encompasses them all: he describes these tales as the transcribings of an ancient text, comprised of fragments and "outtakes" from the legend of Odysseus. The lost Gospels of the Bible, in a way -- the stories not included in the final version. Of course, no such ancient document exists. Surely there were, however, other stories of Odysseus once told, by show more Homer and by others, and while these cannot claim any kinship to those originals, they are unique enough, and true enough, in their own right.

Sometimes it is difficult to take personal preference out of the picture. I found this book enthralling, amazing, wonderful. As each story ended I was sad it was over, almost to the point of resenting the new tale that began on the following page... only to find myself drawn in all over again, just like before. But is it because I have always loved Greek mythology, the old sagas, both The Odyssey and The Iliad? Would a reader with less interest in Homer's classics find Mason's work just as compelling as I have? Well, perhaps not, but they would still have no choice but to recognize the clever writing, the elegant turn of phrase, and the sheer genius of the premise.

The Odyssey, after all, isn't just a story about monsters and Sirens and a long voyage home; it's the story of each person's journey through life, their choices and their mistakes. It's about gaining wisdom through adversity. And in Mason's book, poor Odysseus gets put through even more of the wringer than Homer already subjected him to. Different choices, different moments, different circumstances, and Odysseus is a failure, a success, a beggar; he forgets everything, he loses everything, he stops wanting what he has. They say that your life is made by the choices you make, every day, over and over again; Zachary Mason has given us here just a glimpse into the many ways the story of The Odyssey, and the Trojan War before it, could have been made. show less

Imagine Robert Graves' "Homer's Daughter" reduced to 5 pages. Now imagine 43 variants along the same lines with 20 of them written Calvino (including one on returning to Troy to discover it has been turned into a cheap tourist destination), 20 of them written by Borges (including several in which Odysseus is a character is his own or someone else's story), two by Vidal (one in which cyclops was basically decent and after he was tricked by Odysseus who then flees, the cyclops fantasizes stories of his wandering for the next decade, not wanting to kill him in his fantasies but to string out the revenge), and a final one by Lewis Carroll (in which the Iliad and the Odyssey are both manuals for strange forms of chess that have morphed and show more been corrupted over time).

If you cannot imagine all of those, then you should just read the book -- about 35 of the 44 inversions/reimaginations/retellings of aspects of the Odyssey are amazing, both in the way they are told and the new worlds they open up. And the effect of the book as a whole is powerful, reinforcing certain themes over and over again (like Odysseus basic character) while varying others (like the cause and resolution of the Trojan War). show less

I found this in the giveaway bin at work, and I count myself so lucky that it fell into my hands. Written by a working computer scientist in his spare time, these retellings of scenes, moods, and metaphors from the Odyssey are fascinating. Some of them feel a bit like Memento, they way they tell and re-tell the same moment again and again until Odysseus gets it right, or the Matrix, the way Odysseus sometimes exerts his will over his timespace. Others are tales of Odysseus' cunning that would completely fit alongside the originals, like apocrypha unearthed in an archaeological dig.

I do have to warn you: this book will make you want to read The Odyssey and the Illiad again. And while you're at it, pick up Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad show more and Jeanette Winterson's Weight. And then do what Zachary Mason did and retell your own myths to suit yourself. These stories weren't meant to lay undisturbed inside musty old books. show less

If you've ever been in a shop and come across a brand of snack or box of chocolate that you enjoyed as a kid but haven't thought about in years, and then bought them and gorged on them and realised they are every bit as good as you remember, then you might understand, if you forgive the strangeness of the analogy, how I felt when I read Zachary Mason's The Lost Books of the Odyssey. As someone who loves Greek mythology, but who had neglected to read any for a long while, Mason's book was for me a smorgasbord of treats.

Curiously described by some as a 'novel', Mason's book is a collection of short stories, varying in length from a few paragraphs to about ten pages, that expand, subvert, provoke and play with the stories of Greek show more mythology. Focusing, as the title suggests, on alternate takes on Homer's Odyssey, Mason's book also adopts elements of the Iliad and provides truly entertaining, inventive and original stories in the very welcome tradition of Jorge Luis Borges. In one story, Odysseus returns home to find Penelope married, and determines this Ithaca a false one, a trick by the gods, for his Penelope would never lose faith. In another, he arrives to find Penelope dead and follows her to the underworld. In one, Odysseus is a coward who flees the battlefield of Troy and roams the land as a storyteller, becoming the semi-mythic Homer who tells the story of the wily and courageous Odysseus. In another, a clever appropriation of the Cyclops story, it is Polyphemus who becomes Homer: a man is blinded by a ship's captain who enters his cave, and goes on to make his living as a blind storyteller inventing all sorts of vengeful trials – storms, witches, sea monsters – that he wishes the ship captain to endure. In another, perhaps the most exquisitely Borgesian, the Odyssey and the Iliad begin as manuals of chess that are sublimated into their current Homeric form.

There are forty-four such stories in Mason's book, and each one is a treat. Homer's Odyssey is the original Hero's Journey, one of the most influential stories of human civilization, and ripe with allegorical possibilities – and, in The Lost Books of the Odyssey, Zachary Mason has proved worthy of it. The stories are well-written, with a deceptively simple Homeric sobriety, touching on both major mechanics and minor details of the Greek original. Some readers might not see the appeal, as Mason's stories cannot survive much as stories without the reader's foreknowledge of the classics, but their fragility only makes them more cherishable for those of us who are able to appreciate them. show less

A very pleasant weekend activity in Edinburgh: browsing the shelves of the Central Library, filling up my library card with new books, crossing the road to the National Library of Scotland, then drinking tea in the café there while reading a just-borrowed book. Today this was the book and I greatly enjoyed it. I love the Iliad and Odyssey, so gravitate towards re-tellings and variations upon them. This one is unusual as it takes the form of 44 little vignettes, some of which are barely more than a paragraph with a punchline. Amongst these ‘lost books’ are possible explanations for how the Odyssey was composed, tales that weave it into other mythologies (Eygptian, Hindu), and versions set at different times in history. The overall show more effect is somewhat Borgesian, as you feel rather like you’re pulling books off the Odyssey shelf of [b:The Library of Babel|172366|The Library of Babel|Jorge Luis Borges|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1213638002s/172366.jpg|2235183] and reading a few pages of each. Inevitably, some chapters were more compelling than others, although the whole hung together very well. My favourites did something fresh with the Iliad rather than the Odyssey as such; I have always preferred the former. I particularly liked the variation in which Achilles was a golem. Also memorable were the re-tellings from unexpected points of view: Medusa, for instance, gets a very neat little vignette. Others were slightly too abstract, although all were deftly and fluidly written.

As ever, I was left yearning to re-read the Iliad and thinking about the lasting appeal of Homer's tales. I recently tried to articulate this to a friend and it’s difficult. There is a universality related to the emotions of the characters, I think, combined with a mythic nobility. Thus even modern readers can make some connection with these figures, whilst also seeing their stories as metaphors. But what do I know? Literary analysis is not my academic discipline. Nonetheless, I have noticed that Odysseus seems to be a popular figure for modern re-tellings of ancient Greek stories to focus on - although I can never remember their bloody titles, overshadowed as they are by Homer. In the Iliad, Odysseus seems perhaps more comprehensible and less alien to the modern sensibility. Compared to his fellow warriors, he is less concerned with honour, or at least more willing to interpret it flexibly. He is distinctive for his intelligence and cunning, rather than reckless disregard for his own safety in pursuit of glory. The latter is harder to comprehend today, although it still retains an appealing aura. ‘The Lost Books of The Odyssey’ make Odysseus a liminal figure, more symbol than man. The cultural significance of Homer’s epics supplies the book’s backbone and the central question that it asks: how did Odysseus' story come to have such significance, and why? show less

The Lost Books of the Odyssey is a fascinating and seductive debut book. It retells the traditional Homeric tale of the hero Odysseus and his arduous return trip following the fall of Troy. In it the Trojan War is retold alongside flashbacks as Odysseus travels from Troy to Ithaca. The chapters flow with witty turns or neat bows, more in the style of a short story writer.

The book is a deft and subtle translation of Greek literature for the present day. Personhood, storytelling, memory, and self-awareness are some of the subjects it examines. According to how much light the story decides to shed, Mason's characters can change shape and become elusive, just like the ones in Homer's original.

The traditional Homer stories are transformed show more into new episodes, fragments, and revisions using beautiful prose, a vivid imagination, and stunning literary skill. When read as a whole, these additions expose the timeless Greek epic to countless resonant interpretations. The Lost Books of the Odyssey is It is laced with wonderful wit, elegance, and playfulness.

I found that it was worthwhile, but only for those who have already read Homer's original epic saga. show less